


All Because of a Box

by Zy_Khrymzynn



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Don't Ask, F/F, F/M, Fox Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Guardian Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Headcannons and worldbuilding, Lila Rossi Bashing, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Multi, Strong Marinette Dupain-Cheng, new akumas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25391716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zy_Khrymzynn/pseuds/Zy_Khrymzynn
Summary: This was not how Nathaniel expected his day to go, but Stuff Happens. And he becomes the Guardian of the Miraculouses. Alright, what does he do now?But becoming guardian is only the beginning, and the Love Square becomes a Love Hexagon.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Marc Anciel & Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Comments: 10
Kudos: 67





	1. It All Started with a Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sinnamon_Troll](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinnamon_Troll/gifts).



> This was made from inspiration from one of the threads/chats/whatever on this discord server: https://discord.gg/M9BWvKY. (It's primarily a Nathaniel and Nathmarc sevrer)  
> Anyway, thanks for the idea Sin!

It all started with a box.

Or, at least, that’s what Nathaniel told himself, to reassure himself. In reality it probably started a few weeks before he opened his front door to see a strange package in front of him.

So to be more realistic, it, like many other things in the world, started with Lila Rossi. More specifically, Lila Rossi lying.

Mrs. Bustier had declared a “Study hall”, which was pretty much just their teacher not making proper lesson plans for the classes she taught, so it ended up being time for him to draw. More specifically, some of the temporary heroes. Ever since Miracle Queen happened, he hadn’t seen any of the other heroes besides Ladybug and Cat Noir. He suspected their identities were revealed to Hawk Moth, which meant that they couldn’t be relied upon. Which was a shame, because the other heroes had such cool designs. Rena Rouge, Carapace, ~~Queen Bee~~ , and even some of the more obscure ones like Ryuko and Viperion.

“Of course I met the princess of Iranistan, she’s my best friend!” He heard rustling, probably Lila getting something out of her bag. “Look, she gave me this special head covering as a gift!”

“That’s from Indonesia! That’s not even close to Iranistan! And which princess of Iranistan, there’s seven!” He heard Marinette exclaim. Fashion design is her area of expertise, so she’d probably know. His fashion sense can be summed up with “Whatever is closest when I wake up in the morning”, and he doesn’t really care to change that.

“Well, it’s the third princess, Shadi, of course! And the royal family has a vacation home in Indonesia, so they visit there often. Stop trying to look cool by trying to call me out, Marinette. I don’t know why you hate me so much.”

Marinette only sighed in response and stormed back into her seat. He really hated the fact that everyone believed Lila’s lies, they were _so_ easy to disprove. But there’s nothing he can really do, so he went back to his latest work. This was a sketch (right now), of Ladybug and Chat Noir taking out a metal Akuma. As much as he dislikes the thought of Akumas, they’re almost limitless in design and scope of powers, meaning he can pretty much draw all sorts of villains, unlimited creative freedom.

It was easy enough to tune out Lila’s lies, the words never reaching his brain, at least not fully. His drawings were more interesting than Lila anyways, more specifically about the coloring. Metal was interesting in that it was primarily shiny grey, but it could also be brown or yellowish. He chose a brass color for the metal of the Akuma, just because it was something _different_. And why not make it a brushed brass? Segmented panels that shoot out, trying to hit the heroes (And of course he had his own character, Mightillustrator, because he always dreamed of being a superhero, fighting crime.)

He had just finished the basic colors for the background buildings when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He tensed up slightly.

“Hey Nath, class period’s over, we’re heading to PE now.” He heard Marc say.

“Oh yeah, I just got a bit lost in my drawing.” He picked up the drawing he’d been working on and showed it to Marc, the other teen grabbing it to look at it closer. “I had this one idea for a metal Akuma and sort of went with it.”

“It looks cool.” Marc replied, and handed it back to him. “By the way, I think I’ve got the plot for our second comic down, want to check it out during lunch?”

“Yeah sure, but we have to get through PE first. This is going to be a pain.”

“You say that every time, Nath. Exercise is good for you, you know?”

“If you say so.”

Yeah he still hates PE. Whoever thought that forcing him to run would be a good idea needs to be forced to run twelve miles every day, because it was apparently required for a complete physical assessment. This is not the ancient times, he doesn’t need to run to hunt down like a deer or something, there’s stores and farms and restaurants.

There’s an advantage to this, of course. Mainly getting to see how _strong_ Marinette was. Like, it was crazy seeing her doing things that most of the guys in their class couldn’t pull off. She finished third on the Mile Run, only behind Kim and Adrien.

At least he managed to get through it all. That was an achievement on it’s own.

“So the Akuma’s main power is that it can encase people in ice?” He asked. Ice was relatively easy to draw, so that wasn’t a problem. “How was this Akuma caused?”

“Well I was thinking someone was rejected. The whole ‘frozen heart’ sort of deal, right?”

“Sure that sounds good. So what’s the Akuma going to be called? I like the name Frozen Heart, you mentioned it before.”

“Yeah, that sounds cool. Let’s go with it.”

He already had designs in mind, but he wanted more details. “So what’s the exact details of the Akumatized person?”

Marc pulled out a piece of paper from one of his folders. “Here, this is what I wrote. I tried to make it not like a real person.”

He checked the paper. It seemed pretty reasonable, if a bit cliche. Another girl that was broken up with, although he did like the twist that she broke up with a girlfriend.

“Yeah I think I can work with this. Do you need this paper, I might need to use this for references.”

“Yeah I have a copy of this so no worries.”

* * *

“You told me that you could finish this job in three days!” A heavyset man with a poorly ironed suit yelled at another man dressed more casually in a plaid button-down shirt and dark jeans.

“I never said that! You’re the one that wanted it done in three days, I told you it’d take a week and a half!” The man in the button-down shirt yelled back.

“Well I needed it done in three days! Just take overtime!”

“I’m on salary! I don’t get paid for overtime!”

“Unless you get it done within the next week, you’re going to be dismissed for underperformance.” The boss yelled back. “I don’t need people like you at Advance Industries.”

“I do more work than anyone else in this stupid company! You give me too much work, you need to hire more people!” The other guy stormed off. “I’m taking the rest of the day off as break.”

* * *

Something that Gabriel often disliked about the butterfly miraculous was that it allowed him to detect emotions, even when he wasn’t transformed into Hawk Moth, although he could barely feel it. It was annoying sometimes to get a spike of emotion during a business meeting, but it’s helpful sometimes when he doesn’t have enough time to wait around for a couple of hours transformed, waiting for a sufficiently powerful negative emotion so he can send out an akuma. Nooroo said that was one of the downsides of using the butterfly miraculous for evil, but the Kwami could be keeping secrets from him. He can deal with the minor inconvenience in the meantime, though.

He had just finished up his work on his latest design, some minor adjustments to a suit for some Australasian businessman, when he felt a spike of emotion. Perfect. He walked up to the painting of his wife, and entered the correct pattern to rise to his observatory. The butterflies took off when he ascended to his observatory.

Nooroo flew out as soon as he got to the observatory.

“It’s time. Nooroo, dark wings rise.”

He would never get used to the feeling of the transformation, the closest he could describe the experience was something liquid spreading over his body.

Now that he was transformed, he could feel the emotion he detected before as something more intense.

“The workplace. A place of stress for many people. So many crazy demands from bosses that have no idea what their own employees do. The perfect breeding grounds for all sorts of negative emotions. Perfect targets for my little akumas.”

He reached out his hand, and one of the butterflies flying around landed on his hand. He covered the butterfly with his other hand, and channeled energy into it.

“Fly away my little akuma, and evilize this downtrodden worker!”

He watched as the butterfly flew off into the distance, and then waited. He did a lot of waiting as Hawk Moth. Thankfully, this particular target was pretty close, so it only took the akuma about a minute to reach the person who was feeling this emotion.

The akuma found a home in the man’s pencil, and he got a sense of what sort of powers this person would have. It was easy enough to bring the strongest powers to the forefront. And then a name to secure it all.

“Number Man, I am Hawk Moth. Nobody can see the good work that you do in your job. But don’t worry, I’m a better employer. I can give you the power to see the world through numbers and calculations, but in return, I need you to retrieve Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses.” He flashed a mental picture of the Ladybug earrings and the Black Cat ring, knowing that Number Man got the picture.

_“You should begin your countdown to victory, Hawk Moth, because the odds of me winning the fight are one hundred percent.”_

“If you win this fight, I’ll let you be Number Man whenever you like. I’m sure a smart man like you can do great things with the powers of Number Man.”

_“That’s right, Hawk Moth. But now’s not the time for theoretical math, it’s time for practical application.”_

The dark purple and black energy rolled over the crouched form of the man, transforming him into a figure dressed completely in a white bodysuit, covered in numbers and mathematical symbols in black. When it comes to the head, it was the same as the body, meaning the figure was eyeless, noseless, mouthless, and earless. But he was somehow able to talk.

“Go, Number Man!”

* * *

The first time he saw the most recent Akuma, it was when he was heading over to his after-school job. It was a bit unsettling, looking like someone wearing a white morph suit covered in numbers and mathematical symbols. A decent design, much better than some of the other designs. That’s another reason that he designed original Akumas, some of them just looked _bad_.

But of course nothing in his life could ever be normal, he couldn't just be an ordinary civilian, because Ladybug descended from out of nowhere with a swing of her yoyo, and landed in front of him, a ladybug-themed box in her hand. It opened up to reveal a necklace with a foxtail design in orange and white.

“Nathaniel Kurtzberg, I am giving you the fox miraculous, granting you the power of illusions. You will use this miraculous and return it to me once the fight is over. Do you accept?”

Of course he would accept. Sure it wasn’t what he was imagining, but he could make this work. Hopefully.

“I accept.” He grabbed the miraculous, and as soon as he did, there was a burst of orange light, and then a fox-like being appeared in midair.

“Hey, I’m Trixx, the Kwami of illusions!” The being identified itself. “So, all you have to do to use my transformation is say ‘Trixx, let’s pounce, and to activate my special power you say ‘Mirage’. And to deactivate the transformation say ‘Trixx, let’s rest.’ Got all that?”

He nodded. It was a bit much, but his heart was already pounding in his throat at the thought of fighting alongside Ladybug. Actually getting to be a superhero!

He took the necklace and slid it on. It was surprisingly cold, but not uncomfortably so.

“Alright. Here goes nothing. Trixx, let’s pounce!”

The transformation felt strange, and he almost recoiled at the strange sensation that ran across his body, but in no time at all, he was now…

What should his superhero name be? It needs to be something cool-sounding. Ugh this was more of Marc’s thing...

“Are you ready?” Ladybug asked him.

“I am ready Ladybug.” He replied, more confident then he felt. “And you can call me Täuschen.”


	2. Adding More Problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll get to Guardian!Nath eventually, I just need to set it up. Crack isn't really my strong suit, I tend to play things straight. It'll happen soon I promise :)

He couldn’t see his entire costume, all he could see was short black gloves that fed into skintight orange sleeves with a white stripe running down the inside. There was a weight on his back, and when he removed it, it was a flute, similarly colored. Well he didn’t know how to use a flute, but maybe he could just use it as a club.

It’s magical, it should be fine.

“Alright, let’s do this.” He said more to himself than for Ladybug, to psyche himself up. He’d never been in a real fight before (Akumatization doesn’t count, he doesn’t remember anything from being Evillistrator), but hey, there’s a first time for everything.

One thing that he didn’t expect from becoming a superhero is how  _ light _ he feels. He’s already run like a kilometer, but he’s not even tired or breathing heavily. This miraculous is insane!

It didn’t take him long to find the Akumatized person, someone with a faceless pane instead of a face, pure white save for numbers and mathematical symbols in black. The only sort of color at all was a normal pencil the figure was holding in his left hand.

The Akuma was standing on the angled roof of a building. It was a really sharp angle, to the point where it almost looked impossible for someone to be standing on it, but the Akuma seemed perfectly fine, effortlessly finding new positions to stand in when it was fighting Chat Noir.

The cat hero in question was standing on a different part of the rooftop, swinging his extendable baton at the akuma, who effortlessly dodged each and every attack, although each time the akuma did so, the symbols flashed red and changed positions. It was only for a split second, but it still happened.

“Chat Noir! Ladybug! The symbols on the akuma shift red and change sometimes! I think that’s when it’s using its powers!” He yelled out. Was it helpful? Hopefully.

“Thanks.” Chat Noir replied. “Who are you?”

“Täuschen. I’m here to help out.” He replied in turn, making his way up to the rooftop. Exactly how he managed to do it, he wasn’t sure, but he just did what felt natural. And it worked somehow.

Ladybug used her yo-yo to get onto the roof, and then flung it at the akuma, who managed to dodge the yo-yo almost effortlessly.

“I am Number Man, and I have already calculated your defeat! Adding a new hero to the mix doesn’t change the odds.” The akuma yelled out, twisting his body to dodge both Ladybug’s yo-yo and Chat Noir’s extendable baton.

He took a chance and swung his flute when Number Man’s back was turned (Although it was a bit difficult to tell which was which, because this particular Akuma has no facial features), but the numbers and symbols flashed red and shifted yet again, and Number Man  _ still _ managed to dodge.

“I see the world through numbers and calculations! The world is simple for me to see!” Number Man yelled out. “Give me your miraculouses, or I’ll take them from you!”

“Calculate  _ this!” _ Chat Noir yelled out, before  _ finally _ hitting Number Man with his baton. “Adding a hero really  _ does  _ help. Your power isn’t infinite, Number Man.”

That’s when Number Man’s symbols glowed  _ blue _ and then started constantly shifting around.

Wait, there was this one piece of fighting advice his mother told him a long time ago.

_ “If you're in a fight, aim for the knees.” _

How his mom acquired that knowledge he had no idea, but he might as well use it. While Number Man was distracted dodging Ladybug’s yo-yo and Chat Noir’s baton, he swung his flute right at the back of the akuma’s closer knee.

Somehow, Number Man noticed the flute, moving his leg so the flute missed him by centimeters.

“Lucky Charm!” He heard Ladybug yell out. Yeah probably is the right time for the Lucky Charm, this seems to be a pretty difficult Akuma. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Ladybug got a large gear. “A gear, what am I going to do with this?”

Ladybug started looking around quickly, and then looked like she had an idea.

“Chat Noir, Destabilize his footing! Täuschen, make an illusion!” Ladybug yelled out.

What sort of illusion did Ladybug want? Wait, number man sees the world through numbers, so a massive, complex illusion would do wonders. And the gear reminded him of his steampunk phase a couple of years ago (which he really didn’t want to drag out of the pit he buried it in, but whatever). At least he has something to work with as an idea. Just a massive amount of large, spinning gears.

“Mirage!” He called out, using the flute and calling an illusion from it. A massive amount of spinning gears on top of gears, gears of all types, all colored in the ladybug patterns. At the same time, Chat Noir used his cataclysm on the rooftop to reduce the effectiveness of Number Man’s footing. The gears sprouted up all over the place, and Number Man started to swing his hands around trying to get rid of the gears. The hand that held the pencil ended up slamming into a real gear, being turned around by Ladybug.

A black butterfly flew out of the pencil, and ladybug grabbed it and purified it, and then lowered the transformed person down to the ground to avoid them from falling. And then she called out the Miraculous Cure, and the Ladybugs rushed out and fixed everything, although there wasn’t much damage this time. 

His first experience of being a hero was pretty crazy. What was he doing during the fight? He had no clue, but he did manage to successfully help the two heroes defeat the newest villain. And Trixx, the fox Kwami, seemed to think he did a really good job.

“I’ve never seen a holder make such a complex illusion that quickly! You really are a great fit for the fox miraculous!”

Which is why it pained him slightly to hand over the fox miraculous, but he made an agreement with Ladybug, and he reluctantly went along with it. Hopefully he would get a chance to use the fox miraculous later. He asked Ladybug about it, and she said he might get the fox miraculous sometime soon, if there’s a large enough threat to warrant it.

* * *

“Nooroo, dark wings fall.”

He’d been expecting that Miracle Queen would’ve prevented Ladybug (the new guardian) from recruiting new allies, but looks like Ladybug still managed to recruit new allies, Ladybug found someone else to weild the fox miraculous. That’s only a benefit to him, in the long run, to acquring Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses, as there’s a small chance he could evilize a miraculous weilder. The stress of being the guardian would be getting to Ladybug soon. Eventually.

He can be patient. It had been so long since he started, he can wait longer. And of course he’s working on fixing the peacock miraculous, hopefully that would be done within the month, or maybe the next month.

All in good time.

“No matter the akumas that I send out, no matter how powerful or strong they are, the two heroes” (or sometimes more, like for example today when a new person started weilding the fox miraculous) “Always manage to defeat them. Tell me Nooroo, how am I supposed to create an unstoppable akuma?” He asked. He knew Nooroo wasn’t going to give a straight answer. The Kwami was determined to obstruct his plans as much as it could.

“Akumas are always going to be weaker when harnessing negative emotions, master. The butterfly miraculous was intended to create champions to fight alongside the other heroes, and using it positively is when it becomes the most powerful.”

Someone that  _ wants _ to be Akumatized? Not Nathalie, he doesn’t want to strain her anymore then necessary, her life force was very weak already. But he did have a secondary associate, does he not?

It’s time to pay another visit to the Rossi household.

* * *

As much as he wanted to draw his new superhero form, it would probably be suspicious if he swapped it out suddenly. But there were more subtler things he could do, like slowly adding small amounts of orange to the costume of Mightillustrator. It would probably take several months, and more than a dozen different costumes, but it would definitely be worth it. If asked, he can just explain he wants to take the character in a different direction.

Of course that’s not the only thing that he’s designing. His concept sketches for the Frozen Heart akuma were well on their way to being complete. The design was entirely made of ice, with a heart in the center. The only thing not made of ice was her cell phone, where the Akuma was stored. Ice crystals surrounded the heart in a ring shape, jagged sections and one or two even covered the heart partially. The rest of the Akuma was mostly humanoid, save for the ice covering the Akuma. It wasn’t as complex as he would’ve liked, but that was necessary for comics, as he’d have to draw the same design over and over again.

Another problem he’d been having was Ladybug’s spots. Sometimes there were minor inconsistencies, but nobody really payed that much attention to Ladybug’s spots. (Although if the comic became more popular, people might point it out. But that’s a problem for future Nathaniel.) Still, this is a really good design, and he thinks that Marc is going to like it.

His thoughts went back to when he was being a hero. Of course he wants to be Täuschen again, who wouldn’t want to be a hero? It was a scenario straight out of his fantasies, being a hero fighting alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir.

* * *

As she placed the fox miraculous back into the miracle box, it got her thinking. Being the guardian was pretty stressful, deciding on the right person to give a miraculous to, translating the grimoire, it was all a lot of stressful work.

But at least she had Tikki with her, the Kwami helping her manage her crazy schedule. For example, her Saturday involved meeting with Kitty Section to check if her designs were effective, and then finishing up the rest of her homework for the weekend (Mrs. Mendelev decided to hand out an essay assignment detailing the properties of water), oh and she also has to drop off a cake for her parents, and then there’s the time she set aside for reading the grimoire. A thought came to her at that point. Having temporary holders was a big risk, but maybe if there was another permanent holder, something like Miracle Queen wouldn’t erase all the months she and the previous guardian had put into building up half-decent force of temporary heroes had all been erased.

“Tikki, do you think I should make some new permanent holders? It’s a risk but maybe we can avoid another incident like Miracle Queen where all the holders’ identites are revealed. But there’s a reason the old guardian didn’t do it, right?” She asked. She really didn’t know what to do here.

“If you think more permanent heroes are a good thing, I’d say go for it Marinette.” Tikki replied. “If you still feel unsure, you can talk to Chat Noir on your next patrol about new permanent holders, a second opinion, you know?”

“You’re right Tikki.” She closed the miracle box and put it in it’s secret compartment. Could she have gotten any less of an obvious miracle box? The Ladybug-themed miracle box stuck out like a sore thumb and practically screamed “I’m Ladybug!”

Maybe that was something she could look into.


	3. Lady Liberation

One good thing about how popular the Ladyblog had become, is that sometimes, like in this specific case when she couldn’t collect footage, people submitted footage to the Ladyblog themselves. This latest Akuma was apparently called Number Man. A disgruntled and overworked employee given the power to control numbers or something like that.

Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting the villain, Ladybug using her Lucky Charm, which gave her… something. She trawled through the footage but didn’t see what it was even after three different types of shots. Amateurs.

The supervillain ended up going in a different location, and she switched to someone else’s phone footage. (which was actually shot in landscape. She wants to congratulate this man/woman/whatever on knowing how to actually take footage.) It showed Ladybug, Chat Noir, and…

Wait, what?

Is that someone else with Trixx?

The costume design is almost identical, although this new fox hero had shorter hair, which was tipped white, and there was more black in the costume design, two stripes along the back of the costume, which actually had a more defined fox tail then her costume design as Rena Rouge.

Why did Ladybug choose someone else to have Trixx transform them? Was she not good enough?

Whatever. It’s 10pm anyways, she should really get some sleep.

She fell asleep angry, so she woke up angry. Why did Ladybug choose someone else over her? That was still tossing and turning in her brain. She wanted to ask Nino, but her boyfriend and hero partner hadn’t been talking to her that much over the past several days. Probably had to do with why Adrien hadn’t shown up to school in the same amount of time.

So she has nobody to tell about her frustration. Uuuuugh.

She sat down in class, silently seething, subtly feeling the fake Fox Miraculous she made. Just like always, Marinette came crashing in right as the morning bell rang. Why did Marinette hate Lila so much? It’s ridiculous. All Lila was trying to do was be friendly and share all of her adventures with the class, why did Marinette have to be so  _ crazy _ around Lila? Whatever, Lila’s not here today, probably off sick the poor thing.

She really wished there was someone she could just  _ tell _ about her problems.

“Excuse me Mrs. Bustier, I would like to use the bathroom please.” She called out. She just needed to get  _ away _ . She went into the bathroom, breathed in and out several times, and almost went back to class. But then the mental image of the new Fox hero sparked into her mind.

* * *

It was sometimes difficult to tell one emotion from the other when not transformed, when it comes to the more subtle negative emotions. He probably missed out on so many negative emotions because he couldn’t be transformed all the time.That's why when he felt a spark of anger, he immediately rushed to his secret observatory. Emotions are temporary, they come and go like the wind. He needs to take advantage of them when he can.

“Nooroo, dark wings rise!” He spoke his transformation quickly.

Now that he was transformed, he was able to detect the emotion more sharply, what it was, and the other things based around it.

“Anger and frustration at seeing someone else taking your deserved place, combined with not being able to vent your emotions, and all on top of that jealousy over not having a miraculous you want, something familiar to me. All of this will combine to create an akuma of unparalleled strength.”

He held out his hand, and a butterfly flew into it. It was a simple matter of charging it with dark energy, and then the akuma was created. 

“Fly away my dark akuma, and evilize this betrayed soul!”

The akuma flew off out of the window and into Paris, unerringly finding its target, and landing on the fake fox miraculous.

“Lady Liberation, I am Hawk Moth. Ladybug has denied you what you desire so much, well that’s something we have in common. I’ll be willing to grant you the power of absolute freedom, but in return, you must retrieve the miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Can you do that for me?” He asked.

_ “For sure, Hawk Moth. The heroes will soon be freed from their miraculouses.” _

Then the dark energy flowed around the girl, transforming her. She now had flowing white and orange robes, and a large staff. A white glow surrounded her and she lifted off of the ground, free from the colossal chains of gravity.

_ “I have a plan to take down these heroes, Hawk Moth. Free up some time in your schedule, this might take a while.” _

“Well you’re free to try whatever plans you have, Lady Liberation. Hawk Moth will stand beside you.”

* * *

He’d noticed that Alya had been pretty peeved off the entire day. Something seemed to be on her mind, what was it though? She and Marinette had had a bit of a falling out over the whole Lila situation, but they seemed to be patching things up. And from what he could tell, they hadn’t had another falling out, and Alya was even friendly around Marinette. She was friendly around everyone, and saving the anger for where nobody was looking. But it was obvious in the way her conversations were a bit clipped, and she stayed away from most everyone unless she has to.

It wasn’t something personal with her boyfriend Nino, because there doesn’t seem to be any tension in that relationship that he could tell. What could it be? There had to be a reason?

It was the last class of the day, Literary Analysis with Mrs. Bustier. It was always the same, some hundred-year-old dry novel that’s a slog to get through. Today’s novel was some sort of really long and really drawn-out tragedy. The character’s names had slipped out of his mind a long time ago, leaving only their character archetypes left. The current plot was that the Forgotten Prince wanted to fight the Corrupt Noble to capture Port City, but of course something was going wrong. Untrustworthy General started a mutiny, splitting the fighting into three sides. The worst thing was that the author thought he was a genius of military strategy, so there were paragraphs and pages detailing army movements and troop numbers and military strategies. He wanted to fall asleep and not read about this plot that’s moving slower then a snail, and the snail in question is currently sliding to where it would fall off of a cliff. Because this book is terrible, and there’s no way the conclusion is going to be any good.

Alya had slipped away at one point, probably to use the bathroom. He’d noticed the fox necklace she was wearing. He’d thought that Ladybug had ended up deciding he wasn’t a good enough hero after all and gave the necklace to Alya for some reason. He’d had a spike of jealousy before he noticed it didn’t have the… shine that a miraculous had. She probably just wore it because she liked how it looked.

What he wasn’t expecting to happen ten minutes later was her to come back in, floating inches off of the ground, throwing open the door, clad in glowing white and orange robes swirling around her lazily. He saw that the akuma had a thousand-yard stare, as if she was staring at something far away.

“I need to find Ladybug! She needs to give me my miraculous back, not give it to that fake hero! I am Lady Liberation, and I will liberate the heroes of their magic jewels!”

The akuma rightfully caused the class to scatter in panic, except he saw that Adrien and Marinette went a separate way, then parted ways. A bit unusual, but whatever. He needs to get the hell out of here. Abandoned classroom. Sure, this’ll work.

Whatever classroom he was in didn’t have a clock on the wall, and he didn’t want to move too much to check his phone (who knew when the akuma would show up again). He waited for an indeterminate amount of time, until he stopped hearing screaming, and all he heard was silence. He opened the door, mentally thanking the school janitors because the door barely made a sound. There was nobody around him, the entire school had no people, it was just empty.

That’s when he heard the familiar noise of Ladybug’s yo-yo, and the hero in question landed in front of him, miracle box in hand.

“There’s very little time, you know what to do.” Ladybug said.

He grabbed the foxtail necklace and put it on. Trixx flew out, seemingly happy about having him as a holder/wielder/user/whatever again. “No time to waste. Trixx, let’s pounce!”

There was a flash of orange light, and now he was Tauschen, not Nathaniel. “Let’s beat this new Akuma, Tauschen.” Ladybug said. “Let’s go!” She called out before yo-yoing away.

His first instinct was to climb the stairs, but he remembered how high he was able to jump with the transformation, and in two jumps, now he was on the rooftop and following Ladybug.

Lady Liberation was avoiding all of the two hero’s attacks, dodging effortlessly. At one point Ladybug trapped the akuma with her yo-yo, but the supervillain just passed through the yo-yo as if it wasn’t there. So Lady Liberation had some sort of freeing powers. Interesting.

Chat Noir was there too, trying to get in close, but the supervillain didn’t let that happen.

“The akuma must be in her necklace.” The cat-themed hero called out. “Hey, Tauschen’s back!”

“Guess I am.” He replied.

“Thanks Chat Noir, for finding out where the akuma is probably hiding. It’s time for a Lucky Charm!” Ladybug called out, and a set of manacles appeared in her hands. “Manacles? Lady Liberation can just slip through any bindings, so what’s the point?” He watched as she started looking around.

“Alright, I’ve got a plan!” She called out, and then charged forward, slamming the manacles on her wrists. Lady Liberation looked at them, gloating. But what would happen if it appeared like they didn’t fall off? Hopefully Mirage could pull this off.

“Mirage!” He called out, replacing the real manacles with an illusory set. He watched as Lady Liberation’s face turned from smug amusement to shocked horror. “Why-why can’t I get these off? What- what is the meaning of this!” He had to concentrate to make sure the illusion never directly touched the supervillain, otherwise the illusion would disappear. While he was doing that, Chat Noir had snuck up behind Lady Liberation, whispering “Cataclysm” and disintegrating the foxtail necklace.

The dark energy around Lady Liberation faded away, leaving only Alya there.

Ladybug spoke up at that point. “Sorry for not telling you why I’m not giving you a miraculous anymore. Hawk Moth figured out your secret identity, so it’s too risky for you to be a hero.”

“It’s my fault for being angry.” Alya replied. “It’s your choice… but I guess I got carried away.”

“Sometimes your emotions are difficult to control.” He spoke up, suddenly feeling a lot more confident. Maybe it was the mask? Whatever. “But I’m glad we could resolve this.”

“Oh!” Alya called out. “An interview with the newest hero of Paris?”

He heard a beeping sound and looked down. He only had three minutes before he transformed back. “Maybe later, I gotta head out before I transform back.”

“We’ve decided to make you a permanent hero.” He heard Chat Noir say as he landed in the location the two heroes had specified. A little over a minute before he transformed back.

“Master Fu made a mistake, to have only two permanent heroes.” Ladybug added. “So keep your miraculous, alright?”

He nodded, ran as far as he could, and transformed back. It felt like a dream...


End file.
